CHAPTER 1
I opened the curtains and looked out of the window. It was a beautiful sunny morning. A nice day I thought for Spot and me to spend down at the beach.
I was having my breakfast when Spot made his appearance.
'Good morning Spot, Have you had anything to eat yet?
'Not yet Ken, it was such a beautiful morning, I have been out in the garden ever since I got up.'
'Yes, it's a beautiful morning. Fancy going to the beach today; it will make a nice change after being stuck indoors all the winter.'
'Why not Ken?
'We will leave the car, and take a nice walk; it will blow the cobwebs away.'
'That will do me Ken, but don't put that dog lead on me, it chokes me and I can't get my breath.'
'It only chokes you because you always get too excited and want to run on ahead.'
'Yes but as you have just said, we have been stuck indoors all winter and I am just very glad to get out into the fresh air and sunshine for some exercise.'
'It's no use moaning Spot I will have to take it, and you will have to wear it, because the law states that all dogs must be on a lead.'
'I think it's a stupid law.'
'Spot it isn't the law that's stupid, it is some of the dog owners of certain dogs, like Rottweiler's, Alsatian's, or Pitbulls that are stupid. I'm not saying all dog owners but some of them. A lot of people are frightened when they see those types of dogs running about all over the place without a lead. Some are even required to wear a muzzle; they can be so dangerous. But as I said you can't blame the dogs, but some of the owners who are irresponsible and they get other dogs and owners a bad name.'
'I suppose your right Ken.'
'Tell you what Spot! If it is quiet and there is no one about I will take the lead off when we get there okay.'
'Alright Ken.'
We left the house, but before we went out of the gate I put Spots lead on him. Straight away he was trying to pull my arm out of its socket.
'Take it easy Spot I am going to have one arm longer than the other one.
'Sorry Ken.'
'I will take you the way me and my brothers and all my friends used to go when we were little. This road we are walking down now wasn't here when I was a little boy.'
'It wasn't Ken?
'No, this area around us here was all farmland. Over on the left-hand side here for instance was a field that was always used for the dairy cows.'
'That would be great Ken; I could have had some fun chasing them all over the place.'
'Oh no, you wouldn't have.'
'Why' not?
'Because in the first place you would have been on a lead, and secondly how would you liked to be chased all over the place as you put it.'
'Your right again Ken, but it would have been fun.'
'Not if the farmer saw you doing it.'
'Why?
'Because they used to shoot dogs that worried the animals back in them days, in fact a lot of farmers still do, they have to protect their livestock.'
'This road we are approaching now was just a little narrow farm track, it led you right to the farm, it was called Hemsleys Farm, it was a right of way for people, but you had to respect the farmer's property and the animals.'
We walked on a while. I stopped and pointing to a couple of houses I said to Spot.
'Right there Spot was where the old farm house once stood, there was always a few chickens scratching about and the ducks were over there in that corner.'
'Where those houses are now Ken?
'Yes, but those houses weren't there then. The milking sheds were over this way, sometimes on the way to the beach you met up with the farm hands who would be fetching the cows up this path to the sheds for milking.'
'Did you have to run out of the way?
'No you we stood at the side of the path and the cows would walk right passed you.'
'And they never attacked you?
'No, they just looked at us as they passed. If we came by just after the cows had been milked and there was no one about, we used to sneak into the shed where the fresh milk was kept in big churns.
We would take the lid off the churns and scoop out some of the warm milk to drink, before the lorry came to take them away to the dairy.
'What's a dairy Ken?
'That's where they would take all the milk too, from the farms. After being treated it was put in bottles for delivery to the houses round about.'
'In those days Spot the milk bottle tops were made of cardboard, we would fill our pockets with them and play Getty the further.'
'What was that Ken?
'It was a game we played, you put a milk top between two fingers and flicked them at a wall, When everybody had flicked their milk top, the one that was nearest to the wall won all the tops that had been flicked by all the other boys.
On this corner here was the pigsty, we loved to watch the new-born Piglets, and there were lots of them.
How the big sows, that's what the mother pigs were called, never used to crush the little piglets when they were fighting for one of her teats to feed, I don't know. And the noise of them all squealing was ear splitting at times.'
'Next to the pig sty Spot was where they kept Hemsley's Bull, you wouldn't have chased him around the field, he was huge, bigger in height than I am now and weighed about two tons or even more.
During the day, it would be tied up in the field to a big post by a copper or brass ring through its nose, and at night it would be taken indoors.
One day one of the farm hands, some say it was the farmer Mr Hemsley, went into the field to bring the bull indoors for the night and it somehow knocked him to the ground. And he was supposedly found dead in the field, we used to keep well clear of that field when the bull was in there.
When it was tied up in its stall we used to peep through the open door to see it close up.'
'Was it scary Ken?
'No, not with him being tied up by the ring through his nose, knowing it couldn't harm us, we were very brave.'
We walked further on; I pointed to the name of the road.
'See the name Spot, Hemsley Road; it is named after the farm.'
Looking down this road now, all you can see are houses, but back then when I was little it was all fields. On the right hand side were the Friesian cows, they were like you Spot, black and white, also the farm horses, used to share the field with them.
They were the farmer's main animal's back in those days, as horses did most of the work before tractors were introduced.'
On the left side here is where the farmer grew his corn, as far as your eye could see.
'At harvest time we would come in the early morning and wait for the farm hands to start cutting the corn, we would have with us a couple of Tommy Goftons Whippets.'
'What were those Ken?
'They were very fast dogs, a type of racing dog just like a greyhound but smaller.
When the thresher came along cutting the corn, the noise used to scare the Rabbits and Hares, and every now and then, one would break cover making a dash for it. We would let the Whippets off their leads and they would chase after them and catch them for us. We had friends scattered all about the field, because you had to get the rabbits off the dogs as quick as you could, or they would eat them, we would share whatever was caught between us and take them home for dinner.'
'I would have loved that Ken, chasing Rabbits and Hares'
'I think they would have been too fast for you Spot'
We reached the bottom of the road,...
